Empress of Eternity » (First Edition)

L. E. Modesitt, Jr. lives in Cedar City, Utah

In the far future, an indestructible and massive canal more than 2,000 miles long spans the mid-continent of Earth. Nothing can mar it, move it, or affect it in any fashion. At its western end, where it meets the sea, is an equally indestructible structure comprising three levels of seemingly empty chambers.

Scientists from three different civilizations, separated in time by hundreds of thousands of years, are investigating the canal. In the most distant of these civilizations, religious rebellion is brewing. A plot is hatched to overthrow the world government of the Vanir, using a weapon that can destroy anything-except the canal. If used at full power it might literally unravel the universe and destroy all life forever. The lives and fates of all three civilizations become intertwined as the forces behind the canal react to the threat, and all three teams of scientists find their lives changed beyond belief.

Library Journal

In the far future, a mammoth and indestructible canal over 2000 miles long spans the Earth's mid-continent and ends in a three-story structure filled with empty chambers. Scientists from three different civilizations, separated by time, study the canal, to little effect, but the Vanir Hegemony in the most distant future has internal troubles that could result in the use of a weapon capable of destroying everything on Earth except the canal. The groundbreaking author of the Recluce fantasy series as well as numerous sf novels (The Parafaith War; Viewpoints Critical) embarks on an ambitious undertaking—the telling of one story in three time periods separated by thousands of years—and succeeds in crafting the big picture without forgetting the personal stories that make that vision real. VERDICT Modesitt always surprises and usually delights, and his latest work is no exception.